A Comedian Got Fired For Being White

One award winning English comedian discovered promoting diversity comes with a price after he was terminated for being white.

Reverse discrimination is one consequence of the left’s push for diversity as the be-all, end-all of society.

While sold as a way to expand opportunities, in reality, diversity initiatives often come at the expense of other groups of people.

Jon Holmes is an award-winning comedian who has performed on the British Broadcasting Company’s The Now Show for 18 years.

Included in the 13 awards he’s won throughout his career are eight Golden Sony Radio awards and 2 British Academy for Film and Television and Arts awards; but his on-air performance and comedic talents couldn’t save him from the BBC’s diversity initiative.

The British Broadcasting Company has set a goal to have women make up half their staff as well as minorities holding 15% of jobs by the year 2020 – so Jon Holmes was fired.

Holmes announced his termination over Twitter.

Sad to announce I’ve been axed from @BBCNowShow as ‘we want to recast with more women and diversity’ Tsk. And I didn’t even punch a producer

— Jon Holmes (@jonholmes1) September 26, 2016

Holmes expanded on his tweet in a piece he wrote for the Daily Mail:

“Should I, as a white man (through no fault of my own), be fired from my job because I am a white man? Arguably, yes. You may well think I’m c**p on The Now Show, and that’s fine, but to be told it’s because I’m the wrong sex and colour? I’m just not sure that’s helpful to anyone’s cause.

I realise I’m probably jabbing an ill-judged pointy stick into a diversity wasps’ nest here but, what with all the recent column inches on the subject, maybe it’s time to open up the debate – and, in all honesty, not just because I’m on the receiving end.

Truthfully, I was happy to just suck up the bad news. It’s never nice to be sacked, whatever the reason but, hey, that’s showbiz.

But, after I tweeted the news, I was contacted privately (quietly and off the record, because people are terrified of saying the wrong thing) by many presenters, actors and even agents who are now being told, and I quote: ‘We love your client. He’s perfect for the role. But we’re not allowed to even invite him in for a meeting because we’ve been told to cast someone Asian.’

‘You’ve got the job,’ a presenter was informed, only for her to take a call a few days later saying: ‘Ah. While we want you on the show, we’ve now been told we can’t have you, because you are too white and middle class.’

Look. I reiterate: it’s fine. We all agree that representing our wonderfully multicultural society is important. ‘Crucial’, even, to hijack one of Lenny’s catchphrases from the 1980s.

But, having heard so many stories, I decided (against my agent’s better judgment) that maybe someone should stick their head above the parapet to ask: ‘Can we do this better?’

If we are now openly giving jobs to people based on the colour of their skin, surely that is only emphasising just the kind of social division that the equality that I was brought up to embrace strives to eliminate?

So what if – and I know this is radical – but what if everything and every job in all walks of life was open to everyone equally, and we all just agree that everyone’s the same, by which I mean – you know – ‘human’?”